In general, a refrigerator is a home appliance that can store foods at low temperatures in an inside storage space shielded by a refrigerating compartment door. In detail, the refrigerator can store the foods at an optimum state by cooling the storage space using cooling air generated through heat exchange with refrigerant changed to low temperature and low pressure conditions in a cooling cycle.
As dietary life changes, the size of the refrigerator tends to increase more and more, and multiple functions are provided to the refrigerator. Accordingly, refrigerators having various structures and convenient devices are brought to the market upon consideration of user requirements.
Representative examples of the convenient devices include an ice making device for making ice and an ice/water dispenser. The ice making device and the dispenser for providing the ice or water to a user may be disposed in the refrigerator and the refrigerating compartment door.
The ice making device generally uses a method in which water is directly filled in a tray for making the ice or a method in which the water is filled in a water supply container having a water capacity for making the ice once, and then the water supply container is fitted to supply the water stored in the water supply container to the tray for making the ice.
However, in such a structure, the ice making device can make ice only once. If the water supply container having a large capacity is used, water within the water supply container is frozen due to the nature of a temperature of a freezing compartment. As a result, it is impossible to continuously perform a proper function of the ice making device.
To solve the above-described limitations, a refrigerator has been developed in which a water supply line is directly connected to a household water pipe to continuously make water available to the ice making device. Also, the water supply is connected to the dispenser to dispense drinking water through the dispenser.
Since the refrigerator having such a structure uses the household water pipe as a water source, the refrigerator must be disposed adjacent to the water pipe, or a relative long water supply line must be provided. As a result, installation costs of the refrigerator increases, and an installation place of the refrigerator is limited.
Korean Granted Patent No. 10-0346975 discloses a refrigerator in which a water supply container is disposed in a refrigerating compartment, and water within the water supply container is guided to an ice tray via a water supply pipe by a pump inside the water supply container. In such a structure, an auxiliary water supply container is disposed in the refrigerating compartment, and the water for making ice is continuously supplied into the ice tray to continuously make the ice without requiring a direct connection to a water pipe.
Korean Laid-open Patent No. 10-2006-0068745 discloses a refrigerator in which a mineral water bottle is seated in an upside-down manner to supply water into a water tank, and the water is dispensed to the outside through a dispenser communicating with the water tank. In such a structure, the water of the bottle disposed in a refrigerating compartment door is dispensed into the dispenser without requiring a direct connection to a water pipe.